Everything Comes Back to You
by NothingMadeMeHappen
Summary: Elsie Hughes, top editor in London, and her daughter enjoy a happy life. But what happens when a man from Elsie's past is helping Isla with her future...What secrets will come out?
1. Chapter 1

_Hey all! It has been a while since I published, but this wouldn't leave me alone, so let me know what you think, or even if I should continue it!_

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She looked down at the martini in her hand. She was bored, had never been interested in networking. People either liked her or they didn't. It was no real skin off her nose. She smiled as she saw Isobel come over.

"I know I should be better at this, but I can't bring myself to care all that much."

Isobel laughed out loud. "Well when you're as good a publisher as you are, people should be networking to you, not other way around!"

Elsie shrugged half heartedly, knowing Isobel was right. She was the top publisher in London, and frankly a lot of Europe. Several authors were here and trying to schmooze up to her, hoping that she would read her book. She rolled her eyes, noticing Joseph Mosley making his way over to her only to be distracted by her assistant Phyllis. She looked around the room and noticed her daughter had just slipped into the ballroom. She smiled, happy that Isla had been able to make it.

Isla Hughes looked exactly like her mother except the green eyes she sported and being three inches taller. Her mane of auburn hair was up in a ballet bun and she had a midnight blue cocktail dress on, and heels that made her tower over the person she had been cornered by.

She excused herself and made her way over to her daughter. Smiling with maternal pride that this beautiful creature was a part of her.

"Mum!" Isla exclaimed and hugged her mother tightly.

"Isla, I didn't think you were going to make it." Elsie said with a raised eyebrow.

"Professor Carson's lecture ran a little longer than it should have."

"Professor who?" Elsie said as her face paled.

"Charles Carson. He's teaching the British Class Structure lecture I'm taking this semester. It's fascinating! He's amazing, and he's writing a book and has offered me to be a research assistant! He has to meet with me, and then he would like to meet with you to make sure this wouldn't be a conflict of interest because you won't be publishing the book..." she trailed off, noticing her mothers blank stare.

Elsie shook her head, before congratulating her daughter on her success. While her daughter didn't have the head for numbers that she did, she had a passion for history and preserving tradition. This would be an amazing opportunity and she guessed it would be a good opportunity for her to reconnect with Charlie.

They got home late that night, Isla retiring to her room, in their posh London townhouse. Elsie carefully steeped out of her heels and into her slippers as she sat down at her vanity to take off her makeup. Her mind tumbling down the corridors of her memory stopping at when she had last seen Charlie.

 _"Elsie, we can't keep doing this. I can't keep doing this!" Charles said in a harsh whisper among the shelves in the university library._

 _"What do you mean? You broke it off with Alice months ago! You told me we were free to be together! What happened that made you change your mind?" Elsie whispered pleadingly._

 _"Alice is pregnant, and I have to do the right thing." He said stoically, his voice chilled her._

 _"How do you even know it's yours!"_

 _"She told me, and unlike you I don't look for reasons to distrust people."_

 _She turned from him as if she had been slapped. He knew why she didn't trust people, he knew and now he was throwing it in her face. Tears welled in her eyes as she stood there._

 _"I'm sorry, Elsie. But I have to do the right thing." He turned to leave tossing a goodbye over his shoulder as he walked away._

She started out of her memory and noticed her daughter in the reflection of the mirror. Her eyes softened as she smiled at the girl.

"You didn't answer when I knocked, so I came in." Isla said hesitantly.

"It's fine, lass. What did you need?"

"I haven't been home in two months, I missed you...and wondered if you'd braid my hair." Isla finished with a grin.

Elsie waved her over, motioning for her daughter to sit in front of her before gently brushing the girl's auburn locks. She set to braid while Isla chatted about this and that and exclaiming that her mother had to hear this cover of one of her favorite songs.

They ended the night cuddled up on Elsie's bed, Isla asleep in her mother's embrace. Elsie smiled thinking to when she first held her daughter.

 _"I can't. I just can't," she panted. Sweat had plastered her hair to her forehead, her body felt weak._

 _"You can and you will, Els." Her mother, Margaret, had said as she gripped Elsie's hand._

 _"Just one more push and your little girl will be here, Elsie," Isobel had said preparing herself to guide the child into the world._

 _Elsie bore down as the contraction hit her and cried out with relief was the pressure seemed to disappear. She laughed with joy as she heard the baby's wails echo through the room. Isobel cleaned the baby while the doctor instructed Elsie through the after birth._

 _Isobel came over and reverently laid the little one into Elsie's waiting arms, marveling at just how alike Elsie and her mother looked._

 _"What's her name, lass." The new grandmother whispered._

 _"Mother, meet Isla Carolyn Hughes." Elsie smiled as she looked up at her mother revelling in the smile emanating from Margaret at the use of her own mother's name, Isla._

Elsie tightened her grip on her daughter as she drifted off the sleep with these happy thoughts in her head, promising herself she would call her mother tomorrow as well.


	2. Chapter 2

_Hey Guys, so I decided that since it is my birthday on Sunday that I was going write for fun instead of for school. So that means you all get a new chapter! enjoy and tell me what you think! also these are un betaed so all mistakes are my own_

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A week later had Elsie on a train bound for Oxford. She would spend the weekend with her daughter in the flat she shared with her best friend, Gwen. Gwen's grandmother had lived in Oxford before she had passed away, and she had left the apartment to Gwen's father. So when Isla and Gwen had hit it off their first year of university, Gwen had extended the offer of living with her.

Elsie loved Gwen. Hair like fire with dark brown eyes and freckles that danced across her nose, she had a quick wit and an amazing sense of humor. She and Isla got on like a house on fire. They were like sisters and it warmed Elsie's heart that Isla had found such a relationship.

The train pulled into the station and she gathered her things. Elsie went through the ticket gates and scanned the room, spitting her daughter and Gwen rather quickly. She smiled as both girls squealed as the caught sight of her.

They made their way to the flat and Elsie sighed with relief as they got inside. She made her way into the guest room, unpacking her small bag, the girls had said they were ordering in Chinese and Elsie's belly growled. She smiled as she listened to the girls chattering and Isla ordering her favorite.

Soon the food had arrived and they settled in front of the telly watching a rom com that was more comedy than romance and had all the women laughing to the point of tears. Gwen bade the mother and daughter duo goodnight right after the film. Elsie watched the girl go to her bedroom with a fond smile.

"Mum, I really think you will like Dr. Carson. He's very intelligent! And very kind!" Isla said with an excited smile.

"Honey, I have something to tell you," Elsie said with hesitation lacing her voice. "I knew Charles, Dr. Carson, a long time ago. Back when I was in Uni myself. He may not even remember me. He was a doctoral student when I was still in undergrad. But we ran in the same circles."

Isla's eyebrows rose in surprise, "Well, then it will be a reunion. Did you know his ex-wife?"

"I knew of her, they weren't married when I knew him." Elsie sighed.

"Did he know me when I was born?" Isla asked.

"Nooo, I had moved to the University of Edinburgh to be closer to your gran when I found out I was pregnant, and he had already moved by then." Elsie said hedging around the fact that she had sent him a letter telling him, but not exactly lying.

"Oh well. You're set to meet at the cafe in the covered market. He will be expecting you at eleven o'clock. And he's a man who likes punctuality. So please be on time. Even a little early." Isla pleaded with her mother.

"Alright, well it's past my bedtime, so I'm off to bed. Goodnight my darling daughter." Elsie kissed the top of Isla's head as she made her way down the hall and into the guest room.

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She woke early, the feeling anxious. She got a hot shower and fined her makeup just so.

She dressed in a pair of dark wash jeans paired with a brown leather ankle boot. She put on a cream sweater with a tweed jacket on top as a final touch. She was glad she had packed it because I was a bit nippy outside. She bid her daughter goodbye as she stepped out and headed for the covered market.

She was five minutes early, she sat down and scanned the area, not much business, but then again it was a Saturday before new in an university town. She ordered tea, a pot for two, instructing them to only bring it once her companion had come.

Three minutes later she heard the bell go on the door. She looked up and her heart may have skipped a beat. Charles Carson had always been her kryptonite. Tall, broad with a dimple in his clean shaven chin. Thick hair that was greeting now and dark chocolate brown eyes that you could loose yourself in if you weren't careful. She smile and waved as he stared at her for a moment.

He made his way over and sat down across from her. He smiled and his eyes softened and as he was reaching across the table to find her hand, their server came with the tea, breaking the moment.


	3. Chapter 3

_Hello all! Hope this finds you well! Thank you for the overwhelming response to this story! I hope you all like this update! if you have a chance leave a review please!_

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They took their time preparing their teas. Each mulling over what to say to the other, each a little lost as to how they felt in this situation.

"You look well, Elsie." Charles said quietly, breaking the stifling silence.

"As do you Charlie, as do you."

"You're daughter is as brilliant as you are. I wasn't aware you had married, though I'm not surprised you kept your name." Charles rambled.

"Charles, I never married. Never found someone that measured up, so I raised Isla on my own, building my business on my own. My mam came down and helped of course, but she was in Scotland helping with Becky's children most of the time. But Isla and I, we did fine on our own."

"So Isla's father isn't in the picture at all?"

"It would be strange if he were considering I didn't tell him about her." Elsie said with a bite in her tone.

Charles leaned back and studied her, " I never pegged you for keeping that kind of secret from a man."

"By the time I knew I was pregnant, he was getting married and his fiancé was pregnant, too."

Charles face twisted in confusion. He was trying to put things together when Elsie interrupted him.

"Anyway, the past is the past, no sense in mulling it over. Now, normally I wouldn't let my daughter work with an author from another publishing firm, but since it will help her career, I suppose it would be best." Elsie said with an air of finality.

"I thank you for that. Isla is smart as a whip. She knows what I want and gets it done the first time around, much like I recall her mother did." He said with a sparkle in his eye.

"How's Alice?" Elsie blurted out.

"We got divorced about two years ago, just before William started uni at Sunderland, of all places. Any way, he stayed with me when Alice moved to Spain." Charles explained heavily.

"Ahh. Well I'm very sorry."

"I'm not, not really, I let the wrong girl go all those years ago for a woman who has cheated on me constantly for the last 16 years of our marriage." Charles said laying his hand over Elsie's.

"Charles, we can't."

"Why ever not?"

"Because there are things you don't know, things I'm afraid you would never forgive."

"Elsie, it should be me asking you for forgiveness! You've done nothing wrong. It was me who broke our relationship."

She closed her eyes, willing the tears away. This wasn't how she had planned on telling him, but he was forcing her hand. "Charles, I...Isla is your daughter."

His head started to spin, mind racing of lost time and anger and other emotions...

Elsie panicked at the look on his face, "I wanted to contact you, I phoned Robert to get in touch but he told me you had gotten married! And that you had had a little boy, and were happy. I didn't want to make you choose."

He spluttered, face turning red, thinking about how hateful Alice had been to him. How the blues had gotten a hold of her, and how much he had missed in not having Isla in his life. He clutched his chest, and fell to the floor unconscious. Elsie fell to his side, dialing an ambulance. She held his hand while speaking to the operator. The tears in her eyes fell as she willed him to be okay. She needed to apologize, she needed to fix things. She needed him. And more importantly,her daughter needed the time with her father.

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 _Thanks for reading! Also this was unbeta'd so an and all mistakes are my own_


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